70 Facts About James Carville

James Carville had a principal role crafting strategy for three unsuccessful Democratic Party presidential contenders, including Massachusetts Senator John Kerry in 2004, New York Senator Hillary Clinton in 2008, and Colorado Senator Michael Bennet's campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2020.

James Carville was born on October 25,1944, at a US Army hospital at Georgia's Fort Benning, where his father was stationed during World War II.

Louis Arthur's mother, Octavia Dehon, was of Belgian parentage and had married John Madison James Carville, described in a biography as "Irish-born" and a "carpetbagger," both of whom established the general store operated by the family in James Carville, in 1882.

James Carville graduated from Ascension Catholic High School in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in 1962.

James Carville attended Louisiana State University from 1962 to 1966, but did not graduate at that time.

James Carville served a two year enlistment in the United States Marine Corps, from 1966 to 1968, where he was stationed stateside, at Camp Pendleton in San Diego.

James Carville later worked as a junior high school science teacher.

James Carville was trained in consulting by Gus Weill, who in 1958 had opened the first advertising firm that specialized in political campaigns in the state capital in Baton Rouge.

In early 1985, James Carville consulted to help Cathy Long win a special election to central Louisiana's now defunct 8th congressional district, following the death of her husband, Gillis William Long, of Louisiana's Long family political dynasty.

In 1984, James Carville became acquainted with his consulting partner Paul Begala when James Carville managed then Texas state legislator Lloyd Doggett's unsuccessful campaign for the open Texas Senate seat.

James Carville helped Doggett, an unabashed liberal and committed enemy of special interests, secure the Democratic nomination in a primary that included conservative US Representative Kent Hance, and centrist former congressman Bob Krueger.

Gramm emphasized themes of "family values," including his insistence at a June 1984 prayer breakfast on "having people who believe in Christianity in charge of government," and James Carville counter-punched that theme as antisemitic.

James Carville began counterpunching; he contacted journalists and characterized the mailer as outrageous.

The image of Scranton as a meditating, long haired, dope-smoking hippie, with a background of sitar music, was credited with tipping the scales against Scranton in the socially conservative rural sections of Pennsylvania where James Carville selectively decided to run the "guru" TV commercial.

In 1987, James Carville worked as a campaign manager to cast Kentucky businessman Wallace Wilkinson as a self-made millionaire anti-establishment gubernatorial candidate.

In 1989 and 1990, James Carville assisted conservative Democrat and four-term lieutenant governor Zell Miller in winning the state party's gubernatorial nomination in a five-candidate contest that included Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, then-state senator Roy Barnes, and former governor Lester Maddox.

James Carville attributed Miller's eleven-point primary victory over Young to the attraction of the lottery issue and its capacity to turn out white suburban voters.

James Carville consulted in 1990 for former Texas Congressman and sitting state Attorney General Jim Mattox, a bare-knuckled political brawler who routinely traveled to Huntsville to attend state executions in Texas, the most active state in carrying out the death penalty.

In 1991, James Carville consulted for Harris Wofford in his run for the open US Senate seat left vacant when Senator John Heinz was killed in an April, 1991 plane crash.

James Carville again consulted for Wofford's re-election campaign in 1994 when he was narrowly defeated by Republican Rick Santorum.

In late 1992, and early 1993, James Carville consulted for San Fernando Valley state assemblyman Richard Katz in his run for the open 1993 Los Angeles mayoral election, which was the first time in 63 years that an incumbent mayor didn't appear on the ballot.

In bringing in the series of articles from the Wofford campaign, James Carville imported an angry left-wing populism as a campaign theme.

James Carville alleged that Flowers was paid $175,000 by a supermarket tabloid for sharing her story, and that "the mainstream media got sucker-punched" by her allegations.

James Carville knew he needed to bring Clinton back into the news limelight.

James Carville did so by orchestrating Clinton's splashy criticism of hip hop artist Sister Souljah in a prepared speech Clinton delivered at the Rainbow Coalition's June 1992 "Rebuild America" conference in Washington, DC.

In 1993, James Carville was honored as Campaign District Manager of the Year by the American Association of Political Consultants.

James Carville continued to serve the Democratic National Committee in a political capacity during the 1990s, and had an ongoing need to regularly visit the White House to speak with then President Bill Clinton on political matters.

Accordingly, James Carville was once one of only twenty individuals at the time who was granted a permanent "Non-Government Service" security badge, which were used for non-government employees, such as contractors, who needed regular access to the White House grounds.

In consideration for the privilege of the permanent pass, the Clinton Administration asked James Carville to submit to a full security clearance style FBI background check.

James Carville has been less forthcoming to the news media about his work abroad, and remarked to a Los Angeles Times reporter in 1999, "I won't comment on anything I do outside the US".

In 1994, James Carville consulted for Fernando Henrique Cardoso in his successful 1994 campaign for the Brazilian presidency.

In 1997, James Carville consulted for then leader of the National Congress of Honduras, Carlos Flores Facusse, in his presidential campaign.

James Carville later became the publisher of his family's La Tribuna, a leading Honduran newspaper, and served on various corporate boards of directors, including the Central Bank of Honduras, and became involved in politics.

In 1998, James Carville helped to craft a successful strategy to elect Jamil Mahuad Witt as President of Ecuador.

James Carville was a US State Department-sponsored Fulbright Fellow, who lectured in ethics and politics at several universities.

Mahuad was elected Mayor of Quito in the 1990s before retaining the services of James Carville to help him win the Ecuadorian presidency, in a campaign in which Mahuad touted his educational background at Harvard Kennendy School.

James Carville consulted for Buenos Aires Province Governor Eduardo Duhalde in his 1999 run for president of Argentina as the Justicialist Party nominee.

Carville remarked in May, 1999 that US Ambassador to Argentina James Cheek introduced him to Duhalde in January, 1998.

James Carville's consulting fee ran $30,000 per month, in 1999 US dollars, added to a percentage of campaign advertisements, plus first class airfare and hotel expenses.

James Carville clashed with Duhalde's public relations team leading up to the election, which lead to his departure.

Ghani and James Carville met in Washington in the spring of 2009 through mutual friends.

In 2010, James Carville worked as senior advisor to elect presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia.

James Carville returned to the US as Fulbright visiting fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1981, and earned a master's degree from Harvard Kennedy School in 1981, and lectured as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1988.

James Carville played a crucial role for Santos, helping him to analyze voter polls, and crafted a winning strategy, that included the night-time distribution of pamphlets under the doors of voters' homes predicting the end of popular social welfare initiatives if Santos wasn't elected.

James Carville acted as advisor for Daniel Scioli's 2007 and 2011's campaigns for the governor of Buenos Aires.

James Carville consulted for his unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2015.

James Carville co-hosted CNN's Crossfire along with associate Paul Begala from 2002 until the show's cancellation in 2005.

James Carville was a CNN contributor until parting ways with the network in 2013.

In 2005, James Carville taught a semester of the course "Topics in American Politics" at Northern Virginia Community College.

Notwithstanding, after the election, on November 15,2006, James Carville blasted Dean's leadership as "Rumsfeldian in its incompetence," called for Dean's ouster as DNC Chair and his replacement with Harold Ford Jr.

In late November 2006, James Carville proposed a truce of sorts.

James Carville was the executive producer of the 2006 film All the King's Men, starring Sean Penn and Anthony Hopkins, which is loosely based on the life of Louisiana Governor Huey Long.

In January, 2009, James Carville predicted the execution of a peace agreement between Israel and Syria in the following 18 months, noting it would be a foreign policy priority for the incoming Obama administration.

James Carville was particularly critical of Limbaugh for saying he wanted Barack Obama to "fail".

James Carville was a regular contributor with Stan Greenberg to the weekly James Carville-Greenberg Memo at The National Memo.

Richardson had served President Bill Clinton as his Energy Secretary, and Ambassador to the United Nations, and James Carville believed Richardson owed an endorsement to Senator Clinton.

James Carville claimed Richardson assured many in the Clinton campaign that he would at least remain neutral and abstain from taking sides.

Richardson denied James Carville's account, arguing that he had not made any promises to remain neutral.

James Carville was retained by Palantir Technologies as a paid adviser in 2011, and was instrumental in bringing about Palantir's collaboration with the New Orleans Police Department to quietly deploy predictive policing software in New Orleans.

James Carville has criticized Obama's political style and demeanor over the years.

On October 21,2018 James Carville participated with Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson at the 2018 PoltiCon in Los Angeles in "A conversation with Eddie Izzard", an event chaired by the British comedian.

James Carville joined the faculty of Louisiana State University's Manship School of Mass Communication in January 2018.

James Carville has lectured in political science at Tulane University.

In January 2020, James Carville endorsed Colorado Senator Michael Bennet's ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

James Carville appeared on stage with Bennet leading up to the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary at his political events in the state.

In November 2020, James Carville predicted that the result of the presidential election would be known by 10pm on election day.

In 2022, James Carville led the "Penn Progress" Super Pac, which spent the entirety of its funds in support of Rep.

In 2004, The New York Times noted that James Carville was making more than 100 speeches per year to various audiences, including business groups, colleges and universities and Democratic Party fundraising events.

James Carville had an array of commercial endorsements, and starred in print media and television advertisements for leading consumer brands including Coca-Cola, Little Debbie snacks, Maker's Mark bourbon, Heineken beer, Alka-Seltzer antacid, American Express credit cards, Nike shoes, the Cotton Council, and Ariba software.

James Carville has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and has spoken publicly about ADHD for organizations like Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.